Peer workers for re-employment centerFormer members help peers with the‘now what’ after lay off

By Karen McLean
SPEEA Publications Editor

LYNNWOOD - Larry Lupescu and Gary Stone are both SPEEA members who were recently laid off from Boeing. Their new
job is helping other laid-off aerospace workers
figure out what’s next.

“You get the feeling when you’re walked out -
now what,” Lupescu said. “We’re the ‘now-what’”
- referring to their new job helping laid-off workers. “Our goal as peer workers is to guide and
direct people to the appropriate personnel and
resources.”
They work at the Workforce Re-Employment
Center in Lynnwood but travel throughout the
Puget Sound to meet with laid-off aerospace
workers. They are trained in providing information on layoff resources such Trade Adjustment
Assistance (TAA or Trade Act) and the Workforce
Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).

“My job and my desire is to reach out to people
who are in a similar position to me and Larry,”
said Stone. “We’ve been there. We know the
culture.”
In the last Prof and Tech contract negotiations, SPEEA anticipated layoffs were coming
and worked to include the Voluntary Lay Off
(VLO) option. Since 2013, a total of 1,414
SPEEA-represented employees took the VLO,
which helped save the jobs of younger and mid-career people who wanted to stay. The number
of involuntary layoffs since 2013 was at 2,135
as of Oct. 25.

In nearly 27 years at Boeing, Stone transferred
several times to avoid layoff. When he received
the last layoff notice, he didn’t find another job
in time.

Stone started at Boeing in 1990 as a Tech in the
flight deck group in Renton after moving to the
area from Minneapolis. Through the Learning
Together Program, he earned an engineering
degree from Cogswell College in 2003 and
moved to the Prof Unit. In March of this year,
he walked away from a career that felt like his
identity. “Even now when I talk about Boeing,
I still say ‘we’ - I still care about the company.”
Lupescu started at Boeing seven years ago as a
contractor and became a direct hire and SPEEA
member after two years. He brought nearly 25
years as an automotive designer for companies
such as Daimler Trucks North America, Volvo
Trucks, GM and Chrysler.

While working in Portland, Oregon, he wentto a Boeing job fair andaccepted a job in 2010 as astructures technical design-er for Boeing CommercialAirplanes. He worked onfloor structures, skin design,body integration, seal andcorrosion on planes suchas the 767 and 777-9 andloved it. He was laid off inJune 2017.

“I’ve always been employed,
this has never happened to
me,” said Lupescu. “Now
I’m on the other side. There
are a lot of good people who
are out of work through no
fault of their own.”

What’s next?

Both Stone and Lupescu are
soon going to face the ‘now
what’ question since their
peer-worker positions are
only for six-month periods.
Lupescu started in August
thanks to a connection he
made at a SPEEA meeting
on layoff support (called
Rapid Response).

After his peer work ends,
he’s planning to tap into the
Trade Act funding to study
clean energy technology
at Shoreline Community
College.

Stone, who started his six
months in October, may
look for more work in public service.

That’s not what he thought when he first was laid
off. With his background in technical and engineering work, he expected to find work within
90 days. His expectations changed after diving
into a job market that had shifted dramatically
since 1990.

“You don’t just walk in and hand someone yourresume,” Stone said. “You still have to do a writ-ten cover letter based on careful research of acompany, so when you don’t hear anything, it’sdownright depressing.”His frequent visits to his local WorkSource (state-wide unemployment services) to take classes andseek job leads paid off. One of the WorkSourceemployees told him about the peer worker open-ing and introduced him to Lupescu. “I justdecided to open myself to other opportunities,”Stone said. “(Engineering) is not the only thingI can do.”They both want to reach as many laid-off aero-space workers as possible (whether Boeing ora supplier) before they go. “People are upsetand angry - and justifiably so,” said Lupescu.“Part of our job is to help defuse that. We tryto help people figure out what’s going on andleave them feeling good about themselves andtheir situation.”See more information about resources to helpat www.speea.org (drop-down menu: MemberTools/Layoff Information).

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Gary Stone (left) and Larry Lupescu, who were were laid off from Boeing earlier this
year, help other laid-off workers learn about resources available such as the Workforce
Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA
or Trade Act).